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Mem Aleph
Mem Aleph (メムアレフ, Memuarefu) is a figure in the series. Appearances *''Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey: Final Boss (Law & Neutral) *Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey Redux: Boss *Shin Megami Tensei IV'' *''Shin Megami Tensei IV Apocalypse'' Profile Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey Mem Aleph is the creator of the Schwarzwelt, the mother of all demons, the mother of the human soul, the mother of from which all life on Earth originates and the entity seeking the destruction and renewal of humanity. For most of the game, she remains asleep in her lair in Sector Horologium B9F. In the Chaos Route, the protagonist agrees to carry out her will; in Law and Neutral Paths, he is tasked with her destruction instead. In the Chaos Route, she reveals that she went into the Schwarzwelt and watched the humans in the ancient past, all the while taking the ideal energy of the creatures and humans of earth into the realm. Eventually the corrupt and destructive desires of mankind began to influence it, changing it into the uninhabitable realm for humans that is seen in the game. As this happened so too did the Earth begin to rot. The Cosmic Eggs and the Schartzwelt are intended to work together in order to reconstruct the rotting Earth to a planet full of life like in ancient times. She reveals in the Law route that she finds the world ruled by angels and their arrogant God to be terrible, and plans to put a stop to the humans in order to protect the earth full of life. She also curses The Three Wise Men, who have forgotten their obligation. On the Neutral Route, she regrets that humans are no longer the beautiful souls they once were and now only seek destruction instead of coexistence with the old gods. Her defeat on the neutral path has her question how much power the protagonist has, while still saying that they cannot create a future before she dies. The Exotic Matter dropped by her is then used to empower the weapon that destroys the Schwarzwelt. She welcomes the protagonist in the Chaos Route, and bestows upon him power as a sign that they are connected. She states that all that they have done in the Schwarzwelt has been to make them into soldiers capable of reshaping the human world, and orders both him and Jimenez to retrieve the eggs. After collecting the Four Cosmic Eggs and bringing them to Mem Aleph, she describes how humans and demons are like opposite sides of a mirror. So if humans are beautiful then so are the demons. She gives the protagonist her Exotic Matter in order to open the gate to earth, which results in her crumbling to pieces and becoming one with the Cosmic Eggs in order to become reborn and one with the new earth. She speaks one last time from the Cosmic Eggs after the defeat of Zelenin, where she states she will always be with the protagonist. During the New Chaos Route, she is appalled by the protagonist and Jimenez trying to create a world where humans and demons live as equals under freedom. She declares the idea of "freedom and possibilites" to be abhorant and the cause of humanity's corruption of the world and openly detests the idea of humans reaching the level of demons, even going so far as to imply that Jimenez and Bugaboo should never have been born. Deciding that talking was pointless, Mem Aleph assaults Jimenez and the protagonist in a fierce battle which results in her death at their hands. In each path her form is at first impossible to comprehend and requires a different solution to view it. In the Neutral Route the power bestowed upon the protagonist by Gore allows him to view her form, in the Law Route Zelenin uses her song to weaken her to the point that the protagonist can see her form and in the Chaos Route Mem Aleph breathes on him which gives him power that allows him to view her humanoid form. ''Shin Megami Tensei IV'' A statue of her is found in the Ring of Gaea's main temple at Tsukiji Hongwanji being worshiped by the Gaians, with the implication being that she is the "Gaia" worshiped by the Cult throughout the series. Power and Abilities Outside of Battle Mem Aleph can conceal her true form from humans, suggesting immense power. When she breathes, it causes the Schwarzwelt to tremor. At the cost of her life, she can give power to the Cosmic Eggs. In Battle Almost all of Mem Aleph's skills are completely unique and are the most powerful spells of their element. The attacks are actually the name of their element, such as Fire, Ice, etc. This suggests that she has control over the elements in their primal forms, as they're at their strongest. In addition to that, her Light and Darkness spells are the only spells in the game with a 100% chance of death. She also has other unique spells, such as Great Flood (Almighty, lowers Agility), which may reference the biblical story of Noah. She is also able to completely nullify stat changes and setting them back to their original state and heal herself with Reason's Start, which may be a reference to the start of a new world (a "clean slate") from Nocturne. She also has an ability called Mother's Kiss, which does a number of hits of high damage. Her non-unique abilities are all boss unique ones still, such as Asura Roga and Disaster Cycle. In her second form, she has become a being of raw power. She also shows the ability to warp reality according to demonic alignments with her titular ability Mem Aleph, which dismisses all demons of a randomly selected alignment. She also exhibits randomly shifting resistances, suggesting further control over the elements. Another ability, MA, attempts to kill a demon or even the protagonist without using Light or Dark (and gaining said demon's HP value), showing she is capable of taking away life just as much as she gives it. Strategy Bring a wide variety of demons of different alignments, and with a different variety of attack types, as Mem Aleph can dismiss all active demons of a particular alignment. Having demons with Invitation or Sabbatma can help in filling out the party if too many get dismissed. If your party lacks immunity or resistance to both Expel and Curse, bring along a few Tetraja Stones to keep a fresh defense against Light and Darkness. Resistance to Phys at minimum is almost mandated to avoid losing to Mother's Kiss, which is a strong physical attack that hits 3-8 times randomly. Demons like Ongyo-Ki, Metatron, Trumpeter and Kohryu become very valuable allies regardless of alignment due to their excellent all-round resistances. The usual strategy of buffs and debuffs are important to survival. Mem Aleph's first form can use Reason's Start to erase buffs, but will only do this if she's at -2 on debuffs. A single Debilitate is the most you can go, but feel free to max out your buffs with Luster Candy to improve the overall flow of battle. If you have demons with Jihad/Antichthon, constantly throwing them out can force Mem Aleph to always use Reason's Start during her turn, sparing your team from a lot of damage while they wail on Mem Aleph. Mem Aleph's Empty form is a lot less willing to throw out Reason's Start, letting your team get away with more Luster Candies and Debilitates than her previous form. Her increased stats, though, will pretty much mandate all these buffs and debuffs. She also gains MA, an instant kill attack that steals her target's HP; it can miss, though unlikely, and it registering can dramatically alter the flow of battle. Avoid using Tetrakarn, Makarakarn, or any Attack or Magic Mirrors, as Mem Aleph will respond with MA. When it comes to trying to survive MA, equipping the Dragon Ring, which bestows Endure to the protagonist will help in avoiding an unceremonious defeat. Mem Aleph's Empty form also changes its resistances to elements that aren't Expel or Curse, and the trigger for this change in affinities is unknown. In the original version, the Gibo Eyes sub-app is very valuable to have here, as it reveals which attacks she reflects and, by proxy, which attacks she's weak to. In Redux, it can pay to use weak attacks of varying types to reveal her affinity to each element so that you can see what she's currently vulnerable to. She starts repelling Phys and Gun and weak to Fire, and when she shuffles her resistances, the result is randomly chosen from one of the following: Stats ''Mother Form'' ''Empty Form'' Gallery Etymology Mem and Aleph are the two Romanized , מ and א, the equivalents of the Latin alphabets M and A respectively. This is a reference to the term " " in most of the languages in the world which coincidentally share the sound of /ma/ to indicate Mem Aleph is the archetype of all mothers. However, (א) in the conventional Hebrew language does not represent the vowel /a/ but a glottal stop. The vowel /a/ is otherwise denoted by as diacritics in the dictionary or not shown at all. On a side note, "mother" in Hebrew is spelled "אמא" and pronounced "imma." In Jewish Mysticism, Mem and Aleph are two of the three letters that are called the Mothers. With the three representing the primordial elements of Air (Aleph), Water (Mem) and Fire (Shin). From which these three are born creation. Trivia *In Strange Journey, all mothers who hold the Exotic Matter (Ouroboros Maia, Maya, Tiamat, Mem Aleph) have the letters "M" and "A" in their names, with exception of Mem Aleph, which name literally means "M" and "A". Category:Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey Bosses Category:Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey Characters Category:Abrahamic Mythology Category:Original creations Category:Enemies Category:Final Bosses Category:Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey Allies